Why Me?
by Companion of Insanity
Summary: Ah, memories. Chased out of medieval London because the locals suspected him of witchcraft and being a vampire. Okay, to be fair, they were half right. ***VAMPIRE FIC***


The night had been slow and quiet with the odd whispers in the air that came with the change. Cisco's body has recovered from the initial blood loss, has come down from the high of consuming fresh blood from one of his new kind. To say it was his own would be accurate, too. But he was human at birth. Human and fragile, and mortal.

He'd taken the long nap earlier in the day. But he was somehow exhausted yet again. Everything aches as if he's just run a marathon. So he's lying in bed, and the comforter is unusually, incorrectly warm.

The warmth made little sense since he technically counted as dead. But Cisco can still feel his heart beating. He still breaths, he still hears, sees and feels. Dead and alive at the same time. It's all kinds of weird and wrong...and good.

The comforter shifts slightly and he looks to his left. His company is far older. Well beyond the point of being inappropriate, past the point of logic and currently skipping down the merry lane of over two thousand years. And remembering his age makes Cisco pause. He raises a hand up to study his skin, still dark and fair, and now it always will be. There's still a dull throb in his neck; it'll heal eventually.

A moment passes, and again Cisco thinks of their drastic age difference.

"Harry?" His call is soft, nearly a whisper. But it's clear enough that there's actually a hint of confusion in his voice.

"Hm?" Harry reaches out and gently takes Cisco's hand, stroking soothing circles against his knuckles with his thumb. Cisco notices for the first time the sheer difference in their skin tone, notices the scars and the odd black mark at his lover's wrist. His eyes pick up every outline of his bones. Cisco hears every heart beat, hears every inhale of air. It's overwhelming, really. He's lying flat on his back in bed, Harry is holding his hand, and he's experiencing sensory overload.

"Why me?" Cisco manages as he thinks about their ages yet again. Then the anxiety sets in as the question makes him think of every single one of his own flaws. Then he hears his mother yelling at him from the darkest depths of his mind. He hears cursing from his father in three different tongues. All of them highlighting how imperfect he is.

He's the failure, he can't live up to his parents' expectations. Criticism crawls from his memories to the surface, raw and ready to bleed again. Cisco's self esteem is in the shitter in just milliseconds and his eyes start to water slightly.

Harry turns, sitting on the mattress to face Cisco, still clutching his hand. Because he can hear it all. His ear drums are practically bombarded with it all.

"Why me?" Cisco says again, "You're, like, a hundred times older than me, at least. You could've picked anybody. What do you see in me?"

He's wary. He's confused, blindsided, unsure of himself.

"I'm not quite that old...yet. ...but you're the one that I... To call it love at first sight is a bit inaccurate. While I could spend all day looking at you, admittedly, I fell in love with you and your gifts. The things that stand out about you. You're special. And a selfish part of me didn't want to see that disappear."

Cisco's eyes narrow in confusion. First, Harry is super honest with his answer. Second, Harry was calling him special. What made him so special? Nobody ever really, truly loved him. Now he had someone that wanted him around for eternity. It's a new feeling since he'd been cast out of the family mausoleum since birth. It really hurts to know that his plot, which he may now never use is in the back of the cemetery where the people like to bury criminals.

"Didn't you ever like anyone else?"

Harry is quiet for a moment, and brings Cisco's hand up to his cheek, slightly soothing his young love.

"Once. He was a bit younger than you."

Cisco's interest is piqued. "And?"

"He and his mother were killed by the Praetorian Guard."

Cisco winces. "Ouch."

Harry sighs, a faint touch of sadness in his eyes. "It wasn't meant to be, anyway. He was more interested in his chariot driver."

Cisco winces even more. Talk about rotten luck. That's worse than anything in the Cisco Ramon Book of Dating Fails.

Harry looks back at Cisco and sees the tears that welled up earlier haven't gone anywhere. He lets go of Cisco hand, gets back under the blanket and props himself up on his elbows over his young lover.

Fangs glint in light provided by a puny nightstand lamp. He leans down, pressing a sweet kiss to the other's cheek, making Cisco's eyelids flutter shut and finally let his tears run. The next kiss is placed over his lips, slow and careful to not knock their fangs together.

"I don't care what they say," Harry whispers, "you're perfect.''

Cisco whimpers, so Harry kisses him again.

-3 months later-

They're laughing and smiling when Dante sees them. Just slightly elongated and pearly white. At first he thinks he's seeing things. Until Cisco throws his head back in a cackle at a joke Barry made. Everyone else is so oblivious it hurts. They miss it completely.

But Dante doesn't. Dante also doesn't miss Harry standing in a relaxed pose in the corner, enjoying the company but keeping his eyes on Cisco. Caitlin brushes by him, makes some sort of wise crack that gets him chuckling. Dante spots his fangs, too.

He levels a glare equivalent to death, eyes ablaze in rage. Harry sees Dante and his smile falls. The older Ramon makes his way to the corner quietly, trying to be discreet.

"You turned my brother?!" His voice is low and threatening.

Harry doesn't flinch at the tone, doesn't cower at the glare. If anything, Harry just seems to relax even more. "I had his permission."

"That's not the point! Mom and dad are gonna go nuts when they find out!" Dante feels his vessels boiling and feels his own canines threatening to drop.

"If they find out. And if they do, Cisco is a grown man, not a child. Your parents have no authority over him, now. And when you prove to be the tattletale brother yet again, warn them that they'll lose any challenge they issue with me."

Dante actually snarls just loud enough that Barry looks around, trying to place the noise. When he looks at Dante, the Ramon brother feigns a wince and shifts his foot.

"Found the corner of the couch with my toe." A total lie. But Barry buys it, even replies with a quick, "yeah, that hurts."

Harry looks to Cisco, and feels his chest swell with pride when he sees the youth's canines again. While love was the deciding factor, Harry also just couldn't stand the thought of Cisco and his rare gifts being completely lost to time. And being the only human in his family, he would be.

When Cisco told him about the mausoleum, and it being one space shy, all he wanted to do was burn the thing down. Part of Harry felt it was up to him to preserve the precious gem that is Cisco.

"Mom and dad are gonna tear him to shreds," Dante growled softly. And Harry returned that growl before making his way over to Cisco, still smiling with those perfect fangs.

It's the middle of the afternoon the next day when a pounding knock wakes Harry up. His movements startle Cisco awake easily.

"What the hell?" Cisco groans, grabbing a pillow and covering his face with it; there's sunlight in the room and that isn't helping the situation. Harry sighs and snatches the pillow away.

"Get up. I'll get it." Harry sits up and realizes he didn't change out of his jeans from last night. Cisco rolls over and buries his face in the sheets, Harry pulls on his long sleeve shirt from yesterday and rolls up the sleeves. He doesn't bother with socks or shoes,he's far too comfortable in Cisco's home to bother. By the time the elder vamp gets to the door, the pounding knock has evolved, now sounding like someone is ramming a body or log into the door.

Ah, memories. Chased out of medieval London because the locals suspected him of witchcraft and being a vampire. Okay, to be fair, they were half right.

Harry grips the doorknob tightly and all but rips the door off its hinges as he opens it quickly, eyes fixed and pupils thin with his jaw locked. He smells them before his eyes have fully focused on them.

And they're quite young, compared to him.

"Mr. and Mrs. Ramon. What a delight." Harry says it as politely as he can, but it still sounds like he's ready to decapitate them.

Eduardo Ramon is just slightly taller than Cisco, hair still mostly black. Though there is some silver creeping up around the sides. His skin is a bit whiter than his sons' but he's well built. Damn near a brick privy. And green irises are alight in rage. The woman, who Harry glares at deliberately, is thin but healthy. Sophia Ramon is more fair like Cisco in complexion. A nice set of hips for being slightly over two hundred years and having birthed two children. Her hair is still as black as coal and her eyes red in fury.

"Where is the parasitical brat?"

Harry snarls. "He's hardly a parasite. If anything, I think he's the finest child you've brought into this world. It's a shame you don't see him that way."

There's a yawn in the background that distracts everyone from the issue at hand. Harry turns and sees Cisco, who notices his parents and groans, staggering into the kitchen. His father pushes Harry aside and chases after him. Harry follows a few feet behind. Sophia remains, closing the door quietly. "What were you thinking?! You can't just turn without our permission!"

Cisco heaves a sigh and hits the switch on the coffee pot. He set it the night before. His father is ready to tear his hide to shreds, but Cisco just pulls himself up onto the counter and sits there. He grew up with everyone glaring at him. It doesn't scare him anymore.

"Answer me! You owe me an explanation! And an apology!"

Cisco tilts his head, dark hair hanging in front of his face. "Um... No. I don't owe you anything. I'm gonna have some coffee and then pretend you're not here interrupting my Saturday."

Harry actually chuckles. Apparently Cisco has prepared himself for this because he's handling it rather well.

"Have you even taken him hunting yet?!" Eduardo snaps at Harry.

"You and I both know it's too early. He's not ready." Harry makes a point to go to the front door, opening it carefully because he knows his own strength. The younger vampires watch him as he stands there. He wants them out. He could order them out, he has the authority as the oldest vamp in the room. But he won't just yet. He wants them to test him, to try his patience.

Sophia hasn't moved from her spot at all, still close to the door. "I can't get a scent from you. Why?" She asks quietly.

Harry gave her a flat look, as if the answer was obvious. "I'm too old," his voice was soft. He was far too old to have any scent. He had life in his veins, but he was essentially a walking corpse. Sophia frowned. "How old?"

Harry sighs. He hates that question, now more than ever. "Rome fell and I moved on. The renaissance was boring, Shakespeare should have been executed, Darwin was an idiot, Hitler was insane... It got old quick."

Sophia sets her tone stiff. "What do you see in my son?''

''Everything you were too busy yelling at him to notice.''

Cisco hops down from the counter and grabs a mug from the cabinet. His father continues to loom over him. ''I'm waiting, boy.''

Cisco sighs and pours the coffee into his mug. ''You've got a long wait ahead of you. I don't owe you shit. If anything, you owe me.''

There's a growl and as Cisco turns back towards him, a plume of black smoke forms at his father's feet and slowly rises. Eduardo's skin darkens and his eyes begin to glow even more furiously. Harry feels it, feels the sheer power growing and runs to the kitchen. All he sees when he gets there is black. With Cisco standing in front of it.

''And just what do I owe you? You have been a pointless burden and thorn in my side since you were born.'' It's dark, distorted, and it sounds like there's multiple people talking out of the same mouth at once.

To an outsider, it might look like Cisco doesn't care about the threat floating a foot from his face. His eyes are bright and alive, if half lidded. He raises his empty hand, and Harry's eardrums nearly explode.

The blast is controlled, precise, careful. It sends Eduardo through the expanse of the apartment, ripping him out of his smoke and shadow state. He hits the farthest wall, not knocking anything over, but he does collide with a few pictures and the glass in the frames break under the force of the impact. Harry takes it all in and can't swallow how the blast was so...refined. It was perfect!

Sophia runs to her husband's side, checking him over in a panic.

Eduardo looks up, a loud, gutteral groan from the impact rumbling in his throat. His eyes set on his son, who's nose is now bleeding. The blood is thick and deep red, trailing quickly down to his upper lip. Harry sighs. Well, it was almost perfect. Cisco sips at his mug, eyelids low, left eye wincing a bit. He now has a headache. And it's going to take some time to go away, even with his new healing powers.

He just shrugs. He's not sure what it is he's owed. He just knows that his father, his whole family, really, owes him something.

''I think it would be best if you left,'' Harry suggests, going into the kitchen. Cisco peeks up at him, eyes flooded with anxiety. The presence of his family always does that. They hear the front door, but they ignore it. Harry wipes at the blood with his hand, removing most of it and smearing the rest. Cisco doesn't even flinch when he sees his blood coating Harry's fingers. He's used to it, thanks to being Vibe.

''It's their loss,'' he says quietly, intent on calming the young vampire, ''If they're going to remain arrogant and abandon the true gift that they had, then let them. Their comeuppance will meet them in time.'' He brushes his clean hand through Cisco's hair, nudging black locks behind his ear.

"Next month, we hunt."

Cisco flinched then. "Hunt? As in, attacking people?"

Harry didn't sigh or growl. This was a normal part of being a young vampire. He wasn't fond of the concept in the beginning, either.

"There are ways of getting a meal without giving people a heart attack. That," his finger strokes over Cisco's lip and lightly brushes a fang, "is where these come in."

Cisco turns away. He's not keen on it, but it's the only way he's going to get a meal. Maybe he'd be more accepting if he wasn't so anxious right now. Harry turns and washes his hands in the sink. He can't consume vampire blood. It's highly regarded as a crime to do so.

Cisco wanders out to the living room for space and to hopefully calm down. He doesn't like feeling anxious. While Harry's presence is slightly relaxing, he basically needs some solitude. Time to think. Time to consider his state. He's now a vampire, destined to outlive everyone else with Harry.

He hasn't said anything, but Cisco's gotten more in tune with his powers. He knows Barry's death, when it finally comes, is going to be the hardest for Central City. God, it's gonna hurt when Caitlin goes. He's going to be Vibe for a long time. It's really hard having to contemplate not dying. So far, he hasn't seen his death yet. Or Harry's. And he's literally a living relic.

_Need to think about something else._ ''Hey, Harry?''

''What?''

Cisco sighs, clicks his tongue and shifts his stance, not really in a mood to stand still. ''How does the hunting work?''


End file.
